


Your silence is all I need

by Signe_chan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-06
Updated: 2014-10-06
Packaged: 2018-02-20 04:31:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2415023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Signe_chan/pseuds/Signe_chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the AU challenge - 40. exes meeting again after not speaking for years au</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your silence is all I need

Natasha Romanov lowered her gun slowly, keeping her eyes focused straight ahead. Melinda mirrored the movement, her face carefully blank. For a second they just stood there, staring. Natasha hoped her blank face was as good as Melinda’s. When she’d gotten wind of a group acting under the name S.H.I.E.L.D. this was the last person she expected to find behind it. As far as she was aware Melinda had been on desk duty even before the fall, though she was beginning to suspect that some of the information she’d been given hadn’t been entirely complete. 

“Romanov,” Melinda said, breaking the tension and relaxing her shoulders. She was still keeping her face carefully blank so Natasha mirrored her. Melinda had trained her, after all. She was very good at mirroring the other woman. 

“I thought you’d removed yourself from active field duty.” 

“I thought you only worked on Avengers business now.” 

Another stalemate. They stood there a second, evaluating each other, and then Nat moved slowly. She walked over to the low wall and lowered herself down, letting herself slouch a little. Melinda hesitated and then followed, sitting down almost close enough for their shoulders to touch. 

Natasha would have liked to reach over and bump her shoulder against Melinda’s but they didn’t have that kind of intimacy any more. She missed that, sometimes. She missed the sex too but she understood that the sex was something you could do with or without. Something that you could use as a weapon. Casual intimacy was much more difficult. 

“I heard there was a group in this area working under the name S.H.I.E.L.D.” Natasha volunteered, finally. She wouldn’t get anywhere waiting for Melinda to speak. “I came to investigate.” 

“You find us,” Melinda confirmed. “What are you going to do now.” 

“I don’t know, really. I was going to burn you to the ground but...what made you go back into the field.” 

“Circumstances changed.” Natasha had never been able to affect circumstances enough to achieve that little miracle. It wasn’t like she hadn’t tried. She sometimes wished she hadn’t tried so hard. If she’d held back a little she might not have had to give up the intimacy. 

But she’d been young and naive and stupid enough to still believe in some aspects of love despite what the world had shown her to that point. Stupid enough to believe that her love still had some value. She’d been wrong about that. 

“Who else is out here with you,” she said, changing track quickly. 

“Coulson’s in charge,” Melinda said, which confirmed a suspicion that Natasha had been carrying around with her. Since she’d found evidence of his not being as dead as she’d been lead to believe in the data she’d dumped from the S.H.I.E.L.D. servers she’d been expecting him to show up. The man was dyed in the wool S.H.I.E.L.D., he wouldn’t go down without a fight. “We have a few others. FitzSimmons. Antoine Triplett. We could use more.” 

“Sorry,” Natasha said with a shrug. “I have other plans.” 

If it was Coulson then at least she could be sure that this little group were S.H.I.E.L.D. in the sense she’d thought it existed. A group trying to work for greater good in the world. Trying to contain the threats that humanity wasn’t ready for yet. If someone was going to try to rebuild she was glad it was Coulson. She’d keep an eye on things but from a distance. Maybe get Clint to look into it. Coulson had always liked him better anyway. 

She stood and began to walk away, knowing the fact she was leaving peacefully would be answer enough for Melinda. If she was going to take them out she’d start now while Melinda was unprepared. So she was surprised to feel the light touch on her wrist and look back to find Melinda looking at her, an actual expression on her face. 

“Natasha, I should apologize for how I treat you.” 

“You shouldn’t.” The last thing Natasha wanted was an apology. She’d closed that box a long time ago, no point in opening it now. 

“It was unacceptable. I was hurting and I took it out on you. Said things I shouldn’t have said.” 

“You didn’t say anything to me that people haven’t said before.” 

“That only makes it worse.” 

Natasha didn’t know what to say to that so she took another step away. Melinda’s hand dropped away. It would be easy to turn, to walk away. To put all this behind her again but for some reason she didn’t. 

“I can’t do this now. Not with everything. But give me your number. Maybe, when things are calmer, I’ll call you.” 

Melinda nodded, clearly not wanting to risk the gift being taken back by accepting it out loud. She accepted Natasha’s phone when it was handed to her and entered her number and Natasha saved it and slipped the phone back into her pocket. This time, when she went to walk away, nobody stopped her. 

She didn’t know if she’d use the number but it felt good to have it. Felt like, maybe, she could regain something she’d lost. It was good to have potential again.


End file.
